Writing about the stories behind the stories, with a little bit of sheepish wit.

The President’s latest words about Islam

This is rather shocking, I never thought the President would be so critical of Islam: [from apologeticspress.com]

In the seventh century of the Christian era, a wandering Arab of the lineage of Hagar, the Egyptian, combining the powers of transcendent genius, with the preternatural energy of a fanatic, and the fraudulent spirit of an impostor, proclaimed himself as a messenger from Heaven, and spread desolation and delusion over an extensive portion of the earth. Adopting from the sublime conception of the Mosaic law, the doctrine of one omnipotent God; he connected indissolubly with it, the audacious falsehood, that he was himself his prophet and apostle. Adopting from the new Revelation of Jesus, the faith and hope of immortal life, and of future retribution, he humbled it to the dust, by adapting all the rewards and sanctions of his religion to the gratification of the sexual passion. He poisoned the sources of human felicity at the fountain, by degrading the condition of the female sex, and the allowance of polygamy; and he declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind. THE ESSENCE OF HIS DOCTRINE WAS VIOLENCE AND LUST: TO EXALT THE BRUTAL OVER THE SPIRITUAL PART OF HUMAN NATURE.

Between these two religions, thus contrasted in their characters, a war of twelve hundred years has already raged. That war is yet flagrant; nor can it cease but by the extinction of that imposture, which has been permitted by Providence to prolong the degeneracy of man. While the merciless and dissolute dogmas of the false prophet shall furnish motives to human action, there can never be peace upon earth, and good will towards men. The hand of Ishmael will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him. It is, indeed, amongst the mysterious dealings of God, that this delusion should have been suffered for so many ages, and during so many generations of human kind, to prevail over the doctrines of the meek and peaceful and benevolent Jesus (capitals in orig.).

The President continues, speaking to the violent nature of Islam:

The precept of the koran is, perpetual war against all who deny, that Mahomet is the prophet of God. The vanquished may purchase their lives, by the payment of tribute; the victorious may be appeased by a false and delusive promise of peace; and the faithful follower of the prophet, may submit to the imperious necessities of defeat: but the command to propagate the Moslem creed by the sword is always obligatory, when it can be made effective. The commands of the prophet may be performed alike, by fraud, or by force.

Incredible stuff isn’t. As I read this…wait…oops…my mistake. These aren’t President Obama’s words. These are the words of President John Quincy Adams, over 180 years ago.

Someone explain to me, how a President from the early 19th century can have such an understanding of the violence and privations of Islam given the understanding he was at most minutely exposed to the level of terror that jihadists have inflicted on the world in the last few decades?

Was he just an amazingly inciteful person? Or are we, because of the overtly politically correct nature of our society, blindly sticking our heads in the sand hoping our leaders will get rid of the icky terrorists? Terrorism is not the problem! It is a tool, used by the very people who follow President Adams’ most astute and accurate description of their faith. The war on terror is nonsensical – we seek to destroy the weapons of an ideology and not the ideology itself.

To be clear, the ideology I speak of is specifically that of the Islamist – the person who believes an Islamic caliphate needs to be established and the implementation of Sharia law throughout the world. The Islamist, while not always a practitioner of violent jihad, certainly agrees with the tactic. The Islamist believes in non-violent jihad in countries where Islam is not powerful enough for violent jihad, as in America, which manifests itself in the multi-faceted secular attacks by the many entities of the Muslim Brotherhood.

You owe it to yourself and your children to get a full understanding of the threat facing our culture from Islam. You have no excuse to be less informed than a President 180 years ago who had nothing to fear from suicide bombers, kamikaze jet-liner takeovers or the very real possibility of Sharia creep into our legal system.

The more we know as a people, the more we can demand from our “protectors” in office. They can afford to be useful idiots of the Islamist now because not enough of us are holding them to account to uphold an alternative stance. This must change!

Though I did learn something neat in researching this piece – John Quincy Adams served in Congress AFTER he was president. Makes you think the office of the President wasn’t considered such rarified air as it is today. Could you imagine Clinton or Obama lowering themselves to such a smallish position?

The question I have to ask is: Are they willfully ignoring the threat, or do they just not know any better? Have they bought into the revisionist history of Islam and truly believe it is a religion built on equality, tolerance and peace? A cursory look at its past can quickly dispel such myths. A cursory look at Islam’s own words will equally suffice to do the same. In fact, it takes one much more effort and mental histrionics to develop the concept the current mainstream concept of Islam.

I think it is fear. It is hard for humans to grasp the concept that a large group of people want to wipe their society off the face of the planet. Much easier to pretend the threat doesn’t exist and pray for deliverance than to face it and all its requisite horrors dead on.

Ergo…his remarks are invalid? Or…he wouldn’t have felt this way without the Barbary Pirates? Or…my assertion he didn’t face the horrors of modern violent jihad is inaccurate? Just trying to figure out what you are getting at.

Well, the Somali pirates are in it directly for the profit motive of ransoming kidnapped passengers and cargo and equipment. The Barbary pirates were interested in profits as well, but their cargo was typically Christians who they then sold into slavery in the North African slave market.

Yes there is in fact. You probably won’t be a big fan of the title, but the book has some excellent analysis of the current players in the Islamist movement, and as per your request, is a nice short read, easily finished in one or two sittings.